Tuesday, March 17, 2009

While I was baking Wacky cakes as a child, French children were learning to bake this elegant cake! According to Clothilde, from Chocolate & Zucchini, this is the first cake a French child learns to bake. Most of the measuring uses the handy yogurt tub (which is approximately a ½ cup), and you can see a rendition of this cake with this type of measuring on Clothilde's blog.

Look! I Can Bake!The first cookbook I owned was called Look! I Can Cook! I still have it on my shelf. The binding is coming apart and there are some scribbles on the Lemon Meringue Pie page, but the most memorable thing I remember from this book is this quote:

"Remember that all good cooks clean up after themselves."

I don't know why this stuck in my head, but I've even heard myself telling my children the same thing. I think it's a desperate plea not to be the one left to clean up all the flour and sugar spills that are inevitable after baking with children, and now that I'm a mom I'm glad Angela Burdick included this sage piece of advice.

I decided it was time my children learned to make French Yogurt Cake to complement their Wacky Cake and Chocolate Chip Cookie repertoire. So they each took a turn preparing a part of this recipe. And we tried using the one-yogurt-tub form of measurement too.

This cake relies on the flavor of the oil. In fact, you should taste the oil before using it in this cake (if only to make sure it hasn't gone rancid).

I tried using both Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVO) and vegetable oil. Although the olive oil is fruity and nice to use in cooking, we didn't like it in this cake. Its flavor was too prominent and overshadowed the delicate lemon flavor. We loved the vegetable oil version much better. However, don't let me stop you from trying it yourself. Here's a link to Dorie's version on Serious Eats that uses EVO.

Tasting NotesThe light lemon flavor in this tender and moist cake was delicious on its own, but drizzled with the marmalade made it that much more tasty. Two of my kids liked it on its own, but the third ate a chocolate chip cookie instead. Two out of three isn't bad.

Recipe for Next Week (March 24)Blueberry Crumb Cake on pages 224-225 chosen by Sihan of Befuddlement.

I love that you used the rinds in the marmalade as a garnish...I couldn't bear to discard them! I also love (and share!) your childrens' baking repertoire. Wacky cake is one of my standbys, and this will join it!

Wow...lovely looking cakes. And, most of all, I love the little hands, so those photos are so precious...into the scrapbook they go, right? Very fun to see and learn and experience this entire recipe through your eyes.

How fantastic that you got your kids into the action! In this day and age of instant gratification when everything comes already made out of a box, I'm so appreciative when I see people teaching their children the art of home baking.

Your pictures are fabulous -- love those little helper hands! -- and I love this cake all the more now that I know that it is the first cake French children learn to make. What a great way of encouraging a love of baking early! Your cake looks wonderful -- we loved this one!

As I was making this, I was thinking that it would be a perfect recipe for children just learning how to bake. I hope your kids had fun making it! I really liked this cake and will definitely make it again. :)